E-Mail address book?

[Raymond Lyons]

I guess there still is no address book for the A5 e-mail client.

In the V6 forum, Tom Cone said:

Yes, any table with an e-mail field can be an address book.

which I guess is true in a way, if one builds, say, a button script to use it. However, what is needed is when the A5 client's send screen pops up and the user starts typing in the To: line, it auto fills (as one types) an entry from some table of addresses, like any full feature e-mail client would presumably do. Filling in the To: line before popping open the send window won't do in all circumstances, like when one selects send from a preview screen.

Any ideas or comments about this?

Ray

[DickJames]

Re: E-Mail address book?

Ray --

I listed the names in a browse & put the script "Send an e-mail message" on the OnRowDblClick event. This starts the email program and the address is already in the To: field. Seems to work well & it's only one line of a script. If you want to do it in Xbasic, I have copied it & listed it below.

I don't know how you would do this if you started the email program first.

-- Dick James

'Send an e- mail message using the Alpha Five e-mail clilent.
if is_object(topparent.this) then 
	form_name = topparent.name()+".this"
else
	form_name = ""
end if
Dim message_type as c 
message_type = ""
to_var  = a5_eval_expression("=Browse4:Email1.text")
param_to = to_var
subject_var  = a5_eval_expression("=\"A message from \"+Var->gloPropertyName")
param_subject = subject_var
cc_var  = a5_eval_expression("=Browse4:Email2.text")
param_cc = cc_var
param_bcc = ""
message_text = ""
param_message = message_text
attachment_list = ""
param_attachments = alltrim(attachment_list)
'Send the e-mail using the external e-mail client
email_client_external(param_to,param_subject,param_message,param_attachments,param_cc,param_bcc)

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: E-Mail address book?

[quote=DickJames;418441]Ray --

I don't know how you would do this if you started the email program first.

-- Dick James

Dick,

Thanks, and yeah, I think it is a wish list item.

Ray

[DaveM]

Re: E-Mail address book?

I must have missed the point here. How are you going to get the client and email in the first place? You probably have to type them, get it as an email in, or from another table?

If you type them in, why not type them in a table, press the button where you set up your email and the address is there.

If you get it as an email, all the functions are there to get them into that table. again the same scenario as above.

If you get them from another table?: why not set it up in the other table or append to the table you wish and again do as above.

Did I miss the point here? I send about 500 emails a week and when I am broadcasting, it could go well into the thousands.

Dave Mason

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: E-Mail address book?

Dave,

Ray Lyons' original post: ...what is needed is when the A5 client's send screen pops up and the user starts typing in the To: line, it auto fills (as one types) an entry from some table of addresses, like any full feature e-mail client would presumably do. Filling in the To: line before popping open the send window won't do in all circumstances, like when one selects send from a preview screen...

I too send e-mail using scripts where the To: line is already filled in. That's not what I am looking for. I have a client who thinks he may want to use the A5 e-mail client just for sending (from, e.g., the report preview screen) but even if it could be does not want the To: line pre-filled in but does want it to work like most other e-mail clients that have an address book so that when you start to type "ira" it auto files the rest to "[email protected]" so that you do not have to remember the actual address.

Like I said, this is probably a wish list item, and probably will never happen.

Ray

[DaveM]

Re: E-Mail address book?

I understand. It is always the same. People want the app, but they also want it to have all the functions everybody else's has. Maybe Microsoft windows can star grilling hamburgers.

So you know, our 1.5 million dollar app doesn't even send email at all. It was 1.5 millionto install and it still costs over 20,000 per month.

Dave

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: E-Mail address book?

It's a different can of worms but the reason this client wanted to try using the A5 e-mail client for sending only is because using the MAPI that Outlook uses has in the past caused problems with V7 (they are just getting ready to move to V8). The strange thing is that sometimes a user will get a MAPI error, sometimes no error, just a freeze up, and the latest one I heard is that some users can send a report successfully the first few times they do it but after 5 or 6 times later in the day everything freezes up (memory leak?) when they try the same thing again.

Since I believe that the A5 e-mail client does not use MAPI, the thought was that maybe just for sending reports they could use the A5 e-mail client. That's when the issue came up of sending a report directly from the report preview screen and there is no option other than remembering and typing in the full address of the recipient. Yes, I know I could give them a button that previews and then when they close the preview opens a dialog allowing them to select an e-mail address before opening the A5 e-mail client with the PDF attachment, but that is not what they prefer. Besides, in another app and context I have had some troubles with that latter option with v7--but again when Outlook was used. Everyone except me seems to want to use Outlook.

I have never used Outlook myself, but from all reports it seems to be a pretty crappy program--or maybe it is just the MAPI, I do not know. I used to have a client whose network users all used Eudora and we had very few problems with A5 functions. Then some brain with power said they had to switch to Outlook and @#%$^&*@! Now Qualcom has pulled the plug on Eudora, so it is no longer a real option until they get the new, open source version out sometime this year. I now use Thunderbird but I think it uses the same MAPI that Outlook uses. Eudora, I believe, used only a subset of MAPI--but truthfully I do not know much about any of this. I just want A5 e-mail functions to work perfectly so my client will leave me alone!

Ray

[G Gabriel]

Re: E-Mail address book?

If you really want to, you can substitute alpha's dialog window with yours. It's one xdlg instead of another. On yours, put a field with progressive lookup for the "To" field.

[martinwcole]

Re: E-Mail address book?

I am doing somethig along these lines already -

I have a table called contacts that has a name and email address. When the client clicks the "email report" button I bring up a dialog letting them check the contacts to send it to from the list, and then bring up the email dialog with the selected names already filled in, report attached, ready to go.

It would be pretty easy to let them start typing to get selections - but the contact list is unique to Alpha - not their email address book.

Actually, unless there is a very long list of contacts, checking is quicker and easier.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: E-Mail address book?

Gabe and Martin,

Interesting ideas. Although it appears that the Send Report As drop down on the print preview tool bar is not editable, I suppose one could just delete it and replace it with a new xdialog that would do what I want--at least I think so. If it's that simple and assuming it would work, one has to wonder why an address book is not a built-in feature for the A5 e-mail client.

Ray

[csda1]

Re: E-Mail address book?

.....but does want it to work like most other e-mail clients that have an address book so that when you start to type "ira" it auto files the rest to "[email protected]"

Gee, I seemed to have chosen the wrong domain name!:D

In terms of your problem, one would have to mimic the A5 dialog to look at a list from a table or other source. It probably could be done, but I'm not sure you could replace Alpha's, but could use it in your own routines.

[G Gabriel]

Re: E-Mail address book?

Sure... everything is possible.
Here you go.
I didn't include all the bells & whistles..
It works just fine.

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: E-Mail address book?

Aha! How are we supposed to take your stuff seriously when your Cancel button doesn't do anything?

Just kidding, this is a good piece of work, as usual. Thanks.

Now, just curious: Why did you do the "Send" as a form and not an Xdialog? Did the set the form is based on have anything to do with that?

Ray

[G Gabriel]

Re: E-Mail address book?

Why did you do the "Send" as a form and not an Xdialog?

because the darn thing decided it's not going to work on Monday!
I did something simillar in an xdlg few days ago in response to another thread and it worked just great..but today.. who knows! so, instead of banging my head on the wall, just went with a form until I unravel that mystery.

Did the set the form is based on have anything to do with that?

No.